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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoRebecca Blackwell | Associated PressPresident Barack Obama, with Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall at his side, arrives at the airport in Dakar, Senegal. The visit that began yesterday is the first of Obama’s three-nation African trip.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama set out on an eight-day trip to Africa yesterday that is
aimed at reviving U.S. engagement with the continent but could be overshadowed by the failing
health of South African hero Nelson Mandela.

Obama’s trip, his second to the continent as president, takes him to Senegal, South Africa and
Tanzania. While the president hopes to spotlight trade and economic-development themes, his visit
would be dwarfed if Mandela’s condition takes a turn for the worse.

The 94-year-old former South African president remained hospitalized in critical condition
yesterday after being admitted more than two weeks ago with a lung infection, the government
said.

Air Force One carried Obama; his wife, Michelle; their daughters, Sasha and Malia; as well as
the first lady’s mother, Marian Robinson, and an Obama niece, Leslie Robinson.

Africans feel a special bond with Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, and have
been impatient for him to make an extended visit to the continent. Africans also are disappointed
that the Obama administration has not engaged with the continent as much as the administrations of
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Administration officials say the trip is an opportunity to jump-start the relationship. Obama’s
first stop is Senegal, where he landed yesterday and will visit Goree Island, the site of a
monument to Africans who were sent to slavery in the Americas.

His next stop will be in South Africa, where aides say he will be available to visit Mandela but
will defer to the wishes of the Mandela family to determine whether the former South African leader
is up to such an encounter.

In South Africa, Obama is expected to make a speech outlining his Africa policy at the
University of Cape Town, where Robert F. Kennedy gave his famous 1966 address comparing the
struggle against apartheid in South Africa with the struggle for civil rights in the United
States.

The president also will visit Robben Island, where Mandela and other political prisoners were
held, and visit a health clinic.

Obama’s last stop will be in the eastern nation of Tanzania, where he is to take part in events
with business leaders and visit a power plant.